St. Patrick's Day 2012

Just to show that last year was not a fluke Guinness got their act together again this year to organise a street party on Changkat Bukit Bintang.

I had no idea that St. Patrick was so popular as about 8,000-10,000 people descended on the street hell-bent on having a good time.
It was hot, damn hot! and chaotic and too crowded and noisey but it looked like Guinness had employed every tall,thin Chinese girl they could find in KL to work for them as a promoter..so no complaints from me on that one!
If you were in the mood you probably had a great night....friends of mine finished their last drink at around 6am the following morning but I just don't have the stamina for that anymore...(if i ever did)
Closing the street to traffic seemed to work just fine..sure, leaving was chaos but it is every Friday and Saturday. As I've said before it should be done every weekend.
The only people who would be against it would be the territory-hungry car jockeys who take-up more and more space along the side streets every month.

Good Beer vs Bad Beer

Regular readers will by now have deduced that I enjoy a beer or two...what I don't enjoy  is the hangover that potentially greets me the next morning.
After years of "research" I was hit with a startling discovery- (I won't say how many beers as some of you will think I'm a bit of a lightweight,while others may think I'm a bit of an alcoholic) How come I can drink exactly the same amount of draught beer and sometimes get a really head-splitting hangover one night and then a few days later after another night-out, I can wake-up feeling fine.Well,fine-ish anyway.

From a scientific viewpoint I know it's all about your mood,state of health and diet but also I think it may have something to do with the venue and the quality and freshness of the beer they serve.
To put it simply,the cheaper the beer, the worse the potential headache next morning while if the beer is a bit on the pricey side...less of a bad head the next morning.
After discussing this with other "experts"....we came up with a not very scientific list...

Good Beer Places

• Hard Rock Cafe (sells more Carlsberg than anywhere else in town)
• The Green Man
• Healy Macs
• Magnificent Fish and Chip/Havana/Racks (same owners)
• Twenty One
• Ceylon Bar
• Any random very expensive rooftop bar (G Tower,Luna,Traders-all look the same to me) 
• Aloha
• Finnegans
• Spritz
• Hotel Lounges/Hotel Bars (if you can afford them!)

This list is by no means complete- I'm sure there are a lot more.... .

Now onto the very subjective and anecdotal...

Bad Beer Places;

• Gypsy (still my favourite bar,so I must be a masochist!)
• Nevermine
• Sutra
• Reggae Bar
• Overtime (unfair to include them really as they don't serve Carlsberg or Tiger-they serve their own horrible concoction)
• Thai Club
• Rum Jungle
• Beach Club (but the bottled beer is fine)
• Bearded Clam (situated in Ampang Point,quite possibly the worse bar in KL!)

At times the beer in some of these establishments can be OK-whilst at other times it can taste like someone else has already drunk it.
Whether it's down to storage,cleanliness of apparatus.cleanliness of glasses or staleness of beer,mixing of slops... I just don't know...at least the bottled beer has a consistency.

I'm sure there are others out there....so feel free to add your own......